Macau’s vitally important gaming sector had 55,708 full-time employees at the end of the second quarter, down by 3.0 per cent year-on-year, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) announced on Monday.

According to a DSEC statement, the number of dealers (croupiers) fell by 3.1 per cent to 24,285.

Shift-working staff accounted for 92.7 per cent of the sector’s total number of employees.

In June, full-time employees’ average earnings – excluding bonuses – amounted to 22,060 patacas, up by 2.7 per cent year-on-year. Dealers’ average earnings rose by 2.0 per cent to 18,960 patacas.

There were 587 vacancies in the gaming industry at the end of June, up by 80 from a year earlier.

Some 89.9 per cent and 74.2 per cent of the vacancies required knowledge of Putonghua and English.

In the second quarter, 660 new employees were hired, a drop of 66.5 per cent from the 1,972 in the same quarter of last year, bringing the recruitment rate (1.2 per cent) down by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year.

The sector’s employee turnover rate (1.5 per cent) remained unchanged, while the vacancy rate (1.0 per cent) rose slightly by 0.1 percentage point.

The statement said that “these indicators suggested a continued slowdown in demand for manpower in the gaming sector”.